An update on my campaign finance complaint against the dark money behemoth Sixteen Thirty Fund, why would Marshall Fire victims complain about codes and rebuild to them?
An update on my campaign finance complaint against the Sixteen Thirty Fund
I posted a couple times in the past about my campaign finance complaint against the dark money giant Sixteen Thirty Fund.
The essence of my complaint is that they violate Colorado's campaign finance laws by being an issue committee (by virtue of their expenditures on campaigns and etc) but not registering as such.
I got the final word back from the Secretary of State's office and, coming as no surprise whatsoever, they are not going to pursue charges.
Details are in the document below if you wanted to read up on the office's rationale.
I think by this point, I'm done with complaints against Sixteen Thirty Fund. I've tried twice and have been shot down twice (the first was dismissed because I was outside the statute of limitations, but this one was timely and dismissed on other grounds).
I may pursue others in the future against some of the more local groups that Sixteen Thirty shovels money into so they can hide their expenditures.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZxwkY9QfCxHMkElyslyhTg6s5SjajWpW/view?usp=sharing
Why would the victims of the Marshall Fire, after all the (justified) complaints about the enhanced building codes, choose to go ahead and build to the higher codes when they didn't have to?
That's a good question and one that I'm sure has lots of answers. Like Mr. Fogleman says in his review of a Denver Post article below says, the question above (posed by the Post) misses the point.
The point is not that some (not all) chose to rebuild to the higher standards. The point was that people want the choice as to what they build to.
There are specifics mentioned in the review below (worth a read), but it all boils down to this: there is no choice without consequence.
To some it may be worth it to build to the greener energy codes. Some homeowners that chose this route may have had enough in savings that the higher upfront costs are survivable and they want lower operating costs.
To some it may not be. Maybe they don't have the funds to build back with the higher-priced, yet more efficient materials. Maybe they want a house that is exactly the same as the one they had before and that can't happen at the higher prices.
There is no choice without a consequence, however. Those that chose to update their new homes to the new code have had to pay more, build smaller, or both. Those that chose to build to the lower code standards will have to pay more to heat and cool their homes.
Yes, the point here is not the puzzle of why there were some who complained and there were some who chose to build to the new standards (I do genuinely question how much overlap there is in these groups). The point is that people had a choice and could best decide for themselves what suited their lifestyles given the costs and benefits of each choice.
Let us hope we retain this freedom going forward. Let us work to keep it.
https://i2i.org/denver-post-article-on-green-building-codes-misses-the-point/